Kitchen Table & Bench

Islington, Londoncompleted: 2005Made by: John Crutchlow

The kitchen table is the heart of any house, the place where the occupants come together, where important conversations are had and the events of the day are shared. For our Newington Green House we wanted to make a table big enough for lots of visitors and that is specific to the house. When we were building the staircase in the house, we ordered a bit of spare Douglas fir and a whole sheet of birch plywood in case we made a mistake with cutting any of the pieces. We got to the end without any mistakes and the prize was a free table top and legs, The drawers in the table were salvaged from a film archive that was being demolished across the road. Because plywood would not be very hard-wearing we fitted a corian top so the table is easily cleaned.

Along one side of the table we built a storage bench from birch plywood. The table is extremely heavy and we deliberately made it too big to fit through the front door. We left it there when we sold the house and would hope future owners will understand it as an integral part of the house.